Reforming veterans’ health care is one topic Republicans and Democrats agree on, because polls say nearly all of us are demanding it.

So it really was no surprise when on June 10 the U.S. House voted 426 to 0 to pass the Veterans Access to Care Act of 2014. This allows congressmen to go home to their districts and boast of “leading the fight” on veterans health care reform.

“One of the things you can judge a country on is by how well it takes care of its heroes,” said Bobby Schilling last Wednesday. Schilling, a Republican of Colona, is taking on Democratic U.S. Rep. Cheri Bustos of East Moline in the Nov. 4 election in the 17th District. This is a rematch of the 2012 election, when then-incumbent Schilling was defeated in a newly drawn district.

Schilling said in Rockford that the bill the House passed was a revised version of one he introduced in 2011, to allow veterans to seek treatment in their home communities rather than drive or ride buses to far away VA hospitals and clinics.

The bill was born out of personal experience as well as complaints he heard at veterans forums, he said.

“Dad was a Korean war vet, and in 2005, in the VA hospital in Iowa City he was diagnosed with small cell lung cancer. We were constantly driving him back and forth between home and Iowa City. I thought, why can’t they use the local hospitals and doctors?” Schilling said.

“When I was elected to Congress (in 2010) I heard complaints about long drives, long waits, and veterans not getting the care they need.” So, in 2011 Schilling introduced a bill allowing veterans to get health care in their home towns. U.S. Rep. Jeff Miller, R-California, “absorbed my bill into his, and that’s what passed 426-0,” Schilling said.

“My bill would have allowed veterans to go to any hospital and doctor’s office from day one. Mr. Miller’s bill says when you call the VA and have to wait more than 40 days for an appointment, you can go to your local doctor or hospital.”

A June 9 audit of the VA “found that more than 57,000 veterans were waiting at least 90 days for their first VA medical appointments, and an additional 64,000 appeared to have fallen through the cracks, never getting appointments after enrolling for VA care within the past 10 years,” an Associated Press story said Friday. The system serves nearly 9 million veterans.

Bustos voted for the bill, saying in a statement that it would also “require the VA to receive an independent assessment of the quality of health care provided at its facilities and create an action plan and timeline to be reported to Congress to implement the assessment’s recommendations. Additionally, the legislation would eliminate performance bonuses for VA employees for the next two years.”

Page 2 of 2 - The House bill awaits action in the Senate, where it probably will pass.

Before celebrating, vets on the VA health care system should read the fine print. At least this bill is only 13 pages long. Here, from thomas.gov, the Library of Congress web portal for bills in Congress, is some of that fine print about H.R.4810.

The bill “Directs the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to enter into contracts with such non-VA facilities as may be necessary to furnish hospital care and medical services to veterans who: have waited longer than the wait-time goals of the Veterans Health Administration as of June 1, 2014, for an appointment for hospital care or medical services in a VA facility; have been notified by a VA facility that an appointment for hospital care or medical services is not available within such wait-time goals; or reside more than 40 miles from the VA medical facility, including a community-based outpatient clinic, that is closest to their residence.”

The bill “Allows eligible veterans who opt for hospital care or medical services in a non-VA facility to receive such care or services through the completion of the episode of care, but for no longer than 60 days.”

This bill expires two years from the date it takes effect, so it’s a short-term fix to give the VA time to clean up its act and start offering care to veterans in a timely manner.

I still think the best solution to the VA delays is to dismantle the bureaucracy and give qualifying veterans government-issued health insurance cards to use the same health care system as everyone else. I asked Schilling what he thought of that idea.